Members of Congress Cry Foul Over College Playoff System

The official college football rankings are out, and that can mean only one thing: Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are going on the offensive.

A day after Bowl Championship Series announced its first weekly rankings, a group of Republican and Democratic lawmakers teamed up to begin a new effort to create a playoff system that would determine the annual college football champion.

If you think that members of Congress have too much on their plates to meddle in college football’s business, you’re wrong.

It’s been a decade since college football’s major conferences created the so-called BCS to determine its annual champion based on a series of polls and computer rankings. And just about every year, politicians complain that the system is unfair to teams that play in smaller conferences.

Today, those lawmakers launched a fund-raising committee called “Playoff PAC” that aims to throw some campaign funds to politicians who support a playoff system. The new group “helps elect pro-reform political candidates, mobilizes public support and provides a centralized source of pro-reform news, thought and scholarship,” according to a press release. “Change will only happen when there are more college football reformers in Congress,” the group said.

The major charge against the current BCS system is that teams that don’t play in the largest conference have a tougher shot at the championship due to way that the BCS computers calculate the best team.

Supporters of the playoff push include Sen. Orrin Hatch, a Republican whose Utah Utes went undefeated in last year’s regular season, yet were not allowed to play in the national title game. “I’ve always hoped that the government would not have to get involved,” Hatch said. “But even after hearing the complaints of millions of college football fans….They are apparently unwilling to make any significant changes.”

Added Hawaii Democratic Rep. Neil Abercrombie: “The BCS process continues to operate like an exclusive country club rather than a true play-off system.”

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